


Thirty Silver Coins

by thisisthefamilybusiness



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, Gen, Hannibal Lecter is the world's worst penpal, Heavy Angst, Manipulative Hannibal, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mind Games, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Spoilers for 'Savoureux', Suicide, Survivor Guilt, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-23
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-15 23:19:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/855142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisthefamilybusiness/pseuds/thisisthefamilybusiness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"How do you imagine that Judas Iscariot felt when he left Jesus to die in exchange for thirty coins, Jack? Do you imagine it to feel as you do now, looking at Will Graham's hanging corpse in his cell as Judas looked at Jesus hanging on the cross? Is the bitter, metallic taste of your own failure to save Will Graham and to discover the truth reminiscent of the taste of fresh blood and silver coins, Jack?"</p><p>(Fill for the following prompt on HannibalKink: "This takes place after the finale. Will don't handle the life in prison well, and with Chilton constantly poking around in his mind he soon takes his life. Hannibal thinks it's the perfect time for him to admit being a serial killer, letting Jack and co. know that they imprisoned the wrong man, leading to his suicide. Bring me angst.")</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thirty Silver Coins

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Thirty Silver Coins 三十個銀幣](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9797570) by [jls20011425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jls20011425/pseuds/jls20011425)



They say hanging is the worst way to take one's own life. 

If the neck doesn't break right away, or becomes dislocated instead of breaking, the victim is left to die by strangulation, which can take anywhere from five minutes to half an hour, and is a far more agonising experience. The brain swells and blocks off the top of the spinal column, the Vagal nerve is pinched and stops the heart, and the compression of the airway leads to unconsciousness followed by suffocation. Any one of these may ultimately be the cause of the death, and all are equally horrible. If the neck was dislocated, the victim may be paralysed and unable to move, but if not, they may struggle for a few seconds until they lose consciousness. Most people who attempt suicide by hanging do not snap their necks and end up experiencing the agony of a slow hanging, though it's said that the experience itself may only last a few moments to the victim. 

It took Will Graham twelve minutes to die of strangulation by hanging, though he was unconscious for most of his death. He'd hung himself from an exposed steel pipe in the ceiling of the holding cell they placed him in to clean his cell. Will had lockpicked his handcuffs open before knocking out the guard assigned to sit in the cell and watch him while Will's own cell was being cleaned, then he'd fashioned a noose from torn strips of the blanket on the cell cot, and jumped from the cot, his toes scraping along the cement floor. 

By the time the other guards down the hall realised what had happened, it was twelve minutes too late for Will Graham. 

Hannibal mused that when it came to Will Graham, help always came just a few minutes too late. 

* * *

If you'd have asked Jack how he'd feel to finally get the Ripper behind bars even just a few months ago, he'd have said that would have felt complete and relieved at last--the big case he'd been chasing for so long finally closed, everyone brought to justice. 

But putting Will away hadn't felt like justice. 

It had felt like betrayal. 

Even after Will confessed to the Ripper's murders to Chilton (and later to Jack, on camera), Jack couldn't shake the feeling he'd just sold out his once-friend, that maybe Jack and Chilton and everyone else had broken Will just like Chilton broken Abel Gideon. 

* * *

_Dear Jack,_

_How do you imagine that Judas Iscariot felt when he left Jesus to die in exchange for thirty coins? Do you imagine it to feel as you do now, looking at Will Graham's hanging corpse in his cell as Judas looked at Jesus hanging on the cross? Is the bitter, metallic taste of your own failure to save Will Graham and to discover the truth reminiscent of the taste of fresh blood and silver coins, Jack?_

_It is apparent to me that you suspected, if not outright knew, that Will Graham was not the Chesapeake Ripper, nor the copycat killer. Yet you needed a killer, did you not? And men like Will Graham, unstable at the best of times, make the most delightful scapegoats, don't they?_

_Will Graham did not kill a single person you accused him of murdering, Agent Crawford. In fact, if not for my intervention, he wouldn't even have killed Garrett Jacob Hobbs._

_I am the Chesapeake Ripper, Jack. I am the copycat killer.I am the one who killed Miriam Lass, Abigail Hobbs, and so many others. I am the one who crafted the lures you found in Will's house and I am the one who elevated the most rude of human swine into art. I am the one who called Garrett Jacob Hobbs from the construction site and I am the one who framed Will Graham for every action you accused him of._

_But I never pushed Will Graham into suicide, Jack. That is all the doing of your colleagues and yourself. I framed him for the murders, certainly, but I never delivered the Judas kiss. It truly is a shame to see him go, you know. Hanging is a terrible way to die, and now his precious psyche can't be dissected. Truly a waste._

_He was innocent, Agent Crawford. He tried to tell you so many times; I had hoped you might be clever enough to see what he was saying and realise it was me all along. Did I overestimate your cleverness, Jack, or were you so eager to see the Ripper behind bars that you were willing to ignore the cries of a desperate man as he screamed the truth at you?_

_How did your thirty pieces of silver feel in your pocket as you looked in to Will Graham's dead blue eyes? How does it feel to know that the blood of an innocent man is on your hands? You are not a psychopath, Agent Crawford, nor a sociopath: tell me how it feels to know you are no different, no more innocent than I, the Chesapeake Ripper._   
_Please don't lie to me, Jack. It would be terribly rude._

  
_Good-bye, Agent Crawford,_

  
_Hannibal Lecter, MD._

* * *

_Dear Alana,_

_I trust Jack has already shared with you the contents of my correspondence to him with you. If Jack is our Judas Iscariot, does this make you our Peter, the rock upon which we build our church?_

_You are far more clever than the BAU gives you credit for, Dr. Bloom, perhaps even more clever than you give yourself credit for. You knew Will Graham was an innocent man, and now that his blood is on your hands, are you haunted with the image of his corpse? When you close your eyes at night to sleep, do you have dreams of Will, or are they nightmares?_

_You had your moment of doubt, yes, but you truly believed that Will Graham was not a killer, though you were not able to see the complete picture and find who was truly the Ripper. I'm sure he would have appreciated your continued belief in his innocence, even if your inability to prove it did ultimately result in his turn to suicide._

_They say hanging is amongst the worst ways to kill oneself, as most victims are unable to break their own necks in the jump. Good Will likely hung from the noose for several minutes, still alive, and suffocated to death. Perhaps he thought of you, Alana, and of the love you might have shared in another life, and not of the betrayal you caused him in this one._

_When you last saw him alive, when he confessed to being the Ripper, did you not see the signs of a man broken, Dr. Bloom? Or did you avoid looking at Will for fear that you might see he really was a murderer? Do you replay the past few months in your mind when you are alone and wonder if you could have somehow saved our good Will Graham from arrest and his suicide, if you could have recognised the signs in me and captured me instead?_

_Do you have dreams or nightmares, Alana? Did you take the tainted silver Judas offered?_

_Your old colleague,_

_Hannibal Lecter, MD._

* * *

_Dear Beverly,_

_I wish I had the time to write more in this letter, but it's apparent to me that you are catching up to my whereabouts and will shortly imprison me, so please excuse my discourtesy this time._

_You were a Doubting Thomas to Jack's Judas and Alana's Peter, were you not? You questioned Will Graham, once long ago, but he proved himself to you, and you were faithful to your image of Will until the last. When you saw his corpse on the autopsy table, did you cry out at the sight of your dead Christ? When Will confessed, did you argue with Jack that Chilton had been playing in his head as he had with Gideon? Did you try to steal the silver from Judas's hands and return it, to try to bring good Will back?_

_Or were you passive? Did you let Will kill himself, Beverly? Did you ignore your conscious?_

_We both know the answer, Beverly._

_Sincerely,_

_Hannibal Lecter, MD._

* * *

It took twelve minutes for Will Graham to die. 

It took twelve days for Hannibal Lecter to be captured by the FBI, for Jack Crawford to completely clear the name of Will Graham and to scrape up the little extra money he had for a donation fund to give Will Graham a proper funeral. 

It took twelve months, a full year, for Alana stop having nightmares about dead men with soft brown curls and desperation written in their expressions, and it took one year and two months before Beverly Katz could finally stop interrogating herself about if she had or hadn't acted on everything she could have to have saved Will Graham. 

Sitting in his cell, Hannibal closed his eyes and wondered what it could feel like to hang himself. 

Hanging is, after all, one of the most agonising ways to die.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was vaguely inspired by Hannibal's monologue in 'Hannibal', when he speaks about Judas Iscariot hanging.


End file.
